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DALLAS, Feb. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Baylor Research Institute (BRI)
was recently awarded two new grants to study systemic lupus erythematosus,
commonly known as lupus or SLE. The new funding from the National
Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Alliance
for Lupus Research, which totals more than $2.9 million, will allow
BRI scientists to expand their research of the disease.
Affecting more than one million people in the U.S., lupus is an
autoimmune disease that occurs when a person's body is attacked
by his/her own immune system, which leads to damage of healthy
tissues and cells. It occurs predominantly in women (who make up
around 90% of lupus patients) with a higher incidence in women
of Hispanic, African, Asian and Native American descent.
Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, a component of BRI,
has made significant advancements in the understanding of lupus. "A
major finding was determining that increased levels of a regulatory
immune system protein, interferon alpha, play a central role in
lupus. An overabundance of interferon alpha is responsible for
many of the changes in gene expression levels that correlate with
lupus symptoms," said Jacques Banchereau, Ph.D., Director of Baylor
Institute for Immunology Research. "A collaboration between BRI
and Argos Therapeutics led to the development of antibodies against
interferon alpha. Reducing the serum level of interferon alpha
with an antibody could provide a successful treatment strategy
for lupus patients."
Dr. Banchereau received a $1.9 million grant from the NIAID, a
component of the National Institutes of Health, to study groups
of immune system cells, called T cells, to see how they differ
in lupus patients and healthy individuals. Dr. Banchereau's group
also will determine how these T cell populations fluctuate between
times when lupus patients experience remissions and when they suffer
from flares (times of intense symptoms). These findings may allow
certain types of T cells to be used as early predictors for disease
activity. It could also lead to new treatment options that target
these T cells.
Virginia Pascual, M.D., an investigator at Baylor Institute for
Immunology Research, is supported by a $1 million research award
from the Alliance for Lupus Research (ALR; http://www.lupusresearch.org ). The ALR
is a national voluntary health organization whose mission is to
support medical research into the cause, cure, treatment and prevention
of SLE and its complications. Dr. Pascual's new funding follows
a previous ALR award, which allowed her group to develop a new
test to monitor disease severity that is based on various markers
of lupus activity.
The goal of Dr. Pascual's project, a multi-center effort that
teams lupus clinicians from around the country as well as Canada
and Puerto Rico, is to validate the disease 'signatures' that they
have identified in the blood of lupus patients. These signatures
represent altered gene expression patterns that differentiate lupus
patients from healthy individuals. Dr. Pascual's group has shown
that these signatures can be used to predict disease flares and
the development of serious complications. They also plan to develop
a simple, inexpensive test that can be used to assess disease severity
in lupus patients. This information could help doctors decide when
to treat patients more aggressively to avoid such complications.
Dallas-based Baylor Institute for Immunology Research is the immunology
research component of BRI, an affiliate of Baylor Health Care System.
Opened in 1996, Baylor Institute for Immunology Research brings
laboratory scientists and clinicians together in an effort to increase
understanding of how the immune system works. The institute is
devoted to translating basic laboratory discoveries made about
the immune system into effective treatments for patients. This
interdisciplinary program focuses on developing new therapies to
treat conditions that involve the immune system, such as autoimmune
diseases, cancer, infectious diseases and organ transplants. For
more information about BRI and Baylor Institute for Immunology
Research, visit http://www.baylorhealth.com and http://www.baylorhealth.edu .
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